


Half A Life [Is Better Than None]

by Dirty_Corza



Series: Choices Define Us [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Hints Of Mystrade, Mycroft Gets Married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:03:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirty_Corza/pseuds/Dirty_Corza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mycroft gets married whether Sherlock likes it or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half A Life [Is Better Than None]

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt:
> 
>  
> 
> Sherlock and Mycroft did NOT grow up in privilege. They grew up on the streets in the worst of the slums. They were very close, the other being their only living family. Then Mycroft manages to get a low paying job in the government at a young age and catches the eye of a rich official’s wife. She offers him money in exchange for sex. In hopes of getting Sherlock a better life, Mycroft agrees. Sherlock does not approve. A number of years later, Sherlock meets and introduces Gregory Lestrade to his brother. They have instant chemistry and began dating (or something similar to it). The very night of their first kiss, however, Mycroft gets called to the official’s house. The man had recently passed away and his wife decided it was time she possessed Mycroft on a more permanent level. She proposes to him. At this time, he and Sherlock were still living in the slums and although he has since worked his way a fair bit up the governmental ladder, he doesn’t have enough to get them out. The marriage would improve his prospects in his career and give him unlimited access to his wife’s fortune. He accepts, despite his feelings for Greg. After accepting the woman’s proposal, he never saw Greg again, one of the woman’s demands being complete faithfulness, he was afraid the temptation would be too great. His new money did indeed get them both out of the slums, but Sherlock was furious with his brother for abandoning his future with Greg and refused to move in with him. He used the money he was given for drugs out of protest.

"Mycroft. Why are you doing this? You love him, and you're actually going to do this, for the money?" Sherlock stood next to Mycroft in the back of the church, still not accepting what Mycroft knew was his fate. To save that boy, he'd have to sacrifice himself. Why couldn't Sherlock understand that? Love didn't keep food on the table, love couldn't keep his little brother out of the slums.

"Sherlock. I... I have to."

Sherlock shook his head, face hardening into something cold, an expression Mycroft had never wanted to see directed at him. "You have one last chance today. Are you really throwing that away? You' better not be blaming me. Greg would make you happy. I'm almost old enough for a job of my own. You and him and me, we could be family."

Mycroft reached forward to adjust his little brother's tie, forcing a smile on his own face. "I want something better for you than a life in whatever gutter job someone'd be willing to give a fourteen year old street brat. You can be something more this way, like you deserve."

Sherlock didn't return the smile, silent as they were lead by the vicar into the small sanctuary, not looking at his brother all through the service, his movements mechanical as he did what was required of him as best man. It hurt Mycroft, to have his brother so angry with him, but the knowing look in that woman's eyes, the knowledge that as soon as the papers were signed there would be an account with an allowance each month large enough for Sherlock to get a comfortable apartment, it kept him there, saying words he didn't mean. 

When Sherlock disappeared after the wedding, Mycroft couldn't go looking for him. That hurt more than anything else he did that day, feeling her hand clutching his, reminding him of the price he was paying for his brother's freedom.


End file.
